Skepticism

EVENTS

I get email

I don’t usually get proud Trumpsters writing to me, so this was novel.

You are a narrow mind twit. Liberal minded which proves that you are uneducated in real world topics.
Are you gay or a transgender?
Science has proven these people are indeed mentally ill.
Gays and T’s are most definitely immature, selfish and vindictive.
Yet you write in favor of these misfits. The issue with this is you bash conservatives as if you have the right concept about these issues.
Americans voted for Trump. Time you accept that. We have been the so called silent majority.

Key word: Majority.

The argument “because Trump” isn’t particularly persuasive with me, for some reason.

I also feel like pointing out that Trump didn’t win the popular vote, so you’re not a majority…especially since his popularity is in free fall right now.

Hate to do this, but Trump’s popularity is going up and as high as it was seven months ago. I’ve heard people explain it as Republicans coming home after the tax bill was passed. Popularity tends to lag events by a week or two, so the recent sex/racism scandals would only be having an impact about now.

I am disappointed by the mild and timid nature of this message.
For proper nut mail I recommend the hate mail Ed Brayton often display for public scrutiny at Dispatches From the Culture Wars.
Real nut mail should have RANDOM CAPS, anti-semitic slurs, misspelled words and claims that the reader will burn in hell, and/or wishes that close relatives will be raped.

Factoid: The term “Silent majority” originally was an euphemism for ” the dead”.
So when a politician says “The silent majority will rise on election day” I find it morbidly hilarious.
( source: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)

HJ@7 — those figures are from the same polling analyst who predicted a 302:235 electoral college win to Clinton and then wrote a hindsight article about how his analysis was pretty spot on overall. I don’t put much stock in them. For instance, of the polls collated here, the approval:disapproval ratio varies hugely from 38:57 to 45:50. That suggests to me that differences in methodology are too diverse to be jamming the data into a useful meta-analysis.

It’s also worth scrolling down to see the historical data for previous presidents. There’s not much correlation with future electoral success or with subsequent historical evaluation.

For instance, Bush Sr’s term ended with him on a 78% approval rating but he lost that election to Bill Clinton whose term began at only 54% approval.

And of the post-war presidents, the one who ended with the highest approval rating was Bush Jr, who happened to be the worst of them until Trump came along. According to end-of-term approval ratings, the best post-WW2 presidents have been: Bush Jr > JFK > Bush Sr > LBJ > Ike > Nixon > Carter > Clinton > Obama = Truman > Reagan > Ford.

Well, I know I am. I’m neither gay nor trans, though; I identify as a queer, but that really has nothing to do with those three facets of my personality. Those are just how Vucodlak rolls.

Especially that last one.

Oh and-

these people are indeed mentally ill

-that’s me, too. I prefer call myself “mad.” There’s a laugh that goes along with that, but it doesn’t translate well to text.

Americans voted for Trump.

They sure did! Not all, or most, or even a simple majority of them, but too many no matter how you measure. S’alright. Having a handy list of people who really, really suck is damn useful for a mad, vindictive little thing like me.

We have been the so called silent majority.

You have indeed! What’s strange is that you’re like 25% of the population at most, and also that you never shut the fuck up.

Key word: Majority

Yabbut… yurnot. You’re massively outnumbered. By people who have every reason to hate you. Some of whom are petty, spiteful, and vindictive creatures, not to mention thoroughly, utterly mad.

I also feel like pointing out that Trump didn’t win the popular vote, so you’re not a majority…

As previously mentioned, the people who voted for Trump by marking his name on the ballot, the people who voted for him by throwing away their votes on protest voting, and the people who voted for him by not showing up to vote even though they were eligible, are, combined, a supermajority.

Even though, yes, there are a few kooks out there who maintain a delusional belief that there’s a meaningful difference between the categories above.

We, the *real* people, have been silenced by the elite / liberals / media / immigrants / politicians for too long and we, the *real* people have voted for Trump, so now we, the *real* people have absolute power over everything, even science if it conflicts with the worldview of ours, the *real* people. And you, sir, are not one of us, the *real* people, so you have nothing to say whatsoever, anymore, ever.